Starting school abroad
During the planning stages of our move, a big part of our decisions dealt around which school our girls were going to attend. We started researching and found out that in Italy the majority of the day is taught in Italian, and English instruction was only two or three times a week, so because of this kids grow up learning really only the basics of English. It makes sense that it is difficult to find an adult who speaks English when at a store or market. Adults usually just quickly say they don’t speak English just because they are embarrassed that they won’t know how to answer a simple question.
Although we thought that immersing the girls in the local school would definitely help the process of learning Italian, we quickly realized it would be too much for the girls. Moving to a new country is an adjustment on its own, adding to that being immersed in the school where everyone would be speaking only Italian, would add more unneeded stress.
Back in the day
Looking back, I remember this “sink or swim” method of learning in which students with another native language would be thrown into the classroom with very little support in the U.S. There were no special programs targeted toward these types of students when I was in elementary school. Students ended up learning because they had no other option and yes, this worked, but these students would learn at a slower pace since they were forced to learn content in English with no accomodations in their language. Thankfully this has changed throughout the years with more and more immigrants starting school.
What options do we have?
Public school or English speaking schools? After we decided on English speaking schools, the options we had to choose from were: British, Swiss or the International School. The British School’s curriculum is bilingual in English and Italian, the Swiss school is bilingual in German and Italian, but also teach English and the International school primarily teaches in English but they have Italian class every day. So those were our options. We decided on the International school because we thought the girls would be learning all subjects in English while still being immersed in Italian with a formal class along with the majority of social interactions between classmates in Italian as well.
School tour
When we first arrived in Italy it was summer and school wasn’t starting until the first few days of September. We wanted to ease the girls’ minds before the first day of school so we set up a tour while school was still in session in June. The director met with us and showed us around. We were able to walk into classrooms and see learning going on. We were introduced to the classes that our girls would be in. The students were so friendly and eager to chat with us when we told them we were coming from the U.S.
After our tour, the girls were excited to start their new school. They loved the idea of being one of a small group of Americans. We learned that the majority of the families are Italian with a small population of international backgrounds like American, German, Asian, French among others.
First day of school
When I picked them up on the first day of school, they were so eager to tell me all about it. They met new friends and felt welcomed. They felt like everyone wanted to learn more about them since they are American. The girls were also so intrigued by their new friends and how diverse their class was.
So far it’s been a great experience, although from time to time we do hear how much they miss their friends back home. I am sure this is normal and I love how they still facetime them every so often. Their friends in the U.S. are also curious to know all about their experiences in Italy. They love to compare how things are here with how they are back home.
This process is much easier to go through since the girls know it is just temporary. I try to explain how once they form strong relationships with friends here, it will be that much harder to leave, just like it was when it was time to come here.
